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Saturday, July 31, 2010

Muslim-friendly food, such as Halaal foie gras is moving away from its immigrant roots and merging with mainstream French tradition.

While the fine wine and gourmet food exports that underpin the French food industry have been hit hard by the global crisis, the Halaal niche market has been growing fast.

The growth of Halaal products is largely thanks to young descendants of Arab and African migrants, who want to enjoy the same culinary diversity as their non-Muslim French neighbours while remaining true to their religious roots.

French sales of Halaal food are forecast to hit 5.5 billion Euros (ZAR 53.68 billion) in 2010 and move from the ethnic market to the mass market.

Supermarket chain Casino has created a Halaal brand, Wassila, and fast food chain Quick is trying out a Halaal menu in 8 of its 350 burger joints.

Popular designer label Nine West has been forced to disclose that some of its local shoes contain pig lining following a complaint from a Muslim customer.

The luxury brand will now post disclaimers on shoes containing pig lining after a complaint and query lodged with the South African National Halaal Authority (Sanha) in March.

Sanha raised the matter with the shoe brand who confirmed that certain ranges of shoes contain traces of pig skin. It is strictly forbidden in Islam for Muslims to consume or use any products associated with pigs.

The confirmation prompted the watchdog body to issue an alert to Muslims.

Saturday, July 24, 2010

According to Canadian food laws, Modified milk ingredients are defined in item 7.1, subsection B.01.010 (3) of the FDR, as "any of the following in liquid, concentrated, dry, frozen or reconstituted form, namely, calcium reduced skim milk (obtained by the ion-exchange process), casein, caseinates, cultured milk products, milk serum proteins, ultrafiltered milk, whey, whey butter, whey cream and any other component of milk the chemical state of which has been altered from that in which it is found in milk".

Additional examples of Modified Milk ingredients are

Casein(milk protein)

Caseinates

Calcium reduced skim milk

Cultured milk products

Milk Protein Concentrates

Milk Protein Isolates

Milk serum proteins

Skim Milk Powde

Ultrafiltered milk

Whey

Whey butter

Whey Protein Concentrate

.How we know they are Halal?:

1. If a kosher symbol such as COR, MK, OUD, Circle K, CRC, V appears on food package containing modified milk ingredients, it means the modified milk ingredients are Halal and all other ingredients meet the Halal requirements because not all kosher certified food products are Halal unless they meet Halal requirements. There is a list of 16 ingredients as listed in ALERT section if one of them present in kosher certified products then those kosher certified products are not consider Halal.

2. Inquiry with manufacturer to find out what actual ingredients are used in so called modified milk ingredients. If they happened to be skim milk, ultrafiltered milk then the modified milk ingredients are Halal.

In March 2004 the Jami’yyatul Ulama Canada (CCMT) received complaints from the Muslim community and from certain individuals from the halal industry that many things within the industry are not in compliance with halal guidelines. Subsequently, the Halal Foods Department of CCMT carried out inspections at numerous meat and poultry slaughter and processing plants, all of which are the major suppliers of halal consumables within the GTA. The inspections revealed many areas of concern. Since then, the HMA has provided numerous alternatives of monitored certified products. Attend the seminar to see what is being done and obtain first hand information regarding HMA. Remove any misunderstandings and be an active ambassador for genuine Halal.